Upset Hindus are urging Hong Kong headquartered e-commerce company CowCow.com for immediate withdrawal of various bikini-bottoms carrying images of Hindu deity Lord Ganesha; calling it highly inappropriate.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that Lord Ganesha was highly revered in Hinduism and was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to adorn one’s buttocks/crotch. Inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, also urged CowCow.com and its CEO to also offer a formal apology; besides withdrawing Lord Ganesha bikini-bottoms.
Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.1 billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously. Symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled, Rajan Zed noted.
Zed further said that such trivialization of Hindu deities was disturbing to the Hindus world over. Hindus were for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivializing it hurt the followers, Zed added.
Products of CowCow.com, founded in 2003, include “T-Shirts, Dresses, Skirts, Leggings and all other types of Clothing”. It claims: “Over 11 million designs spread out on more than 500 unique products ranging from clothes to bedding, bags to umbrellas.” Headquartered in Kwun Tong (Kowloon, Hong Kong), it lists CS Department in Houston (Texas, USA). The objectionable Bikini Bottoms, named “Grace of Ganesha”, are priced from $34.99 to $35.99.
In Hinduism, Lord Ganesha is worshipped as god of wisdom and remover of obstacles and is invoked before the beginning of any major undertaking.